This invention relates generally to reel stands, and in particular those useful in lifting and rotatably supporting a reel.
In many industrial applications it is necessary to provide reels having materials such as cable, rope, or sheet stock wound thereabout. Oftentimes these reels are extremely heavy when loaded and thus present considerable problems in effectively handling them to facilitate unwinding of the materials wound thereupon.
It is well known in the art that these reels may be supported by heavy trucks or other equipment which are necessarily occupied during the reel unloading stage. These trucks have means associated therewith for suspending the reel rotatably above the ground thereby facilitating unwinding of the materials. Because it may be economically undesirable to utilize a lift truck or other heavy machinery for these purposes, reel stands are well known in the art for their ability to provide a mechanism to unload the materials found on these reels.
These previous reel stands have the ability to be positioned with respect to the reel to facilitate the lifting or supporting of the reel from the ground. These reel stands are further adapted to permit rotation of the reel while being supported by the stand to facilitate dispensing of the materials wound thereupon. In many cases these prior art reel stands are U-shaped in design wherein the reel is supported between the oppositely positioned downwardly extending arms of the inverted U. These inverted U-shaped reel stands are difficult to handle and are inflexible with regard to the size of reels that may be supported thereby.
It is also known that reels of the nature described herein develop substantial rotational inertia during the unwinding process thus raising the possibility of an over pay-out of material. This over pay-out or more commonly known as slack has potentially hazardous effects on machinery using the materials wound upon the reel and also presents a dangerous hazard to workers operating the equipment unloading the reels. It is therefore known that a clutch member or braking means may be provided with the reel stand to control reel rotation.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,693,876 to Unruh, 1,825,218 to Van Hook, 1,832,446 to Boe, 2,650,771 to Marion and 4,098,468 to Skalleberg, reel stands are described which are operative to support a reel off the ground and permit rotation of the reel to facilitate unwinding of the material contained thereon.
Similarly, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,215,651 to Pierce, 3,944,094 to Compton, 3,995,758 to Kovaleski and 4,030,704 to Bierle cable reel support structures are described which have a means to lift a reel off the ground and support it rotatably for unwinding operations.
These prior devices have many problems. For example, in many cases they are extremely cumbersome to operate, and unnecessarily expensive for the purposes intended. Moreover, these prior art devices are limited with regard to the size of reels that may be supported and lifted thereby. Further, very strong forces act upon the cross members of these previous stands which have a deleterious effect on the reel unloading operations. These prior art devices are also inflexible with regard to the height to which the reel may be raised.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved portable reel jack stand operative to lift and rotatably support a reel wherein the lifting means is indexed to selectively raise the cable reel in incremental distances and the reel jack stand has reel braking means operatively associated with the lifting means.
There is a further need to provide a reel jack stand having a plurality of telescopic members operative to lift a reel and rotatably support a reel, wherein a braking means is supported by the telescopic members.
There is an additional need to provide an improved reel jack stand operative to lift and rotatably support reels having a wide range of diameters and widths wherein the reel jack stand has braking assemblies associated therewith.